A NEW CHAPTER OF KINGDOM SERVICE

In December 1947 other members of the Governing Body visited Christians in Spain. At that time, Brothers N. H. Knorr and M. G. Henschel were able to assist Spanish fellow believers spiritually. Along with the visitors came John Cooke, by then a graduate of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead. Yes, this was the same brother who had left Spain in 1936 just before the Civil War started. Now he was assigned to the Iberian peninsula to get our work organized in Spain and Portugal.

One place needing assistance was Barcelona, where two distinct groups functioned as a result of division based on personal differences. When Brother Cooke arrived at the airport there, two small groups of brothers greeted him, but were unwilling to greet each other. For the first week or so the situation was very difficult. The brothers were disorganized, doing no real field service. However, within a short while Brother Cooke was able to organize a combined Watchtower study, and from then on the atmosphere slowly improved, although the wounded feelings were a long time in being healed.

The first vital step in the reactivation of our work in Spain was to get the house-to-house activity going again. That suggestion met with protest: “But, Brother Cooke, this is not London or New York. This is Franco’s Spain. You can’t do house-to-house work here!” John thought otherwise. So, he started on his own, doing an odd house here and there so that he could never be located by the police or be effectively denounced. With his example before them, the other brothers began to follow suit. They soon realized that with tact and prudence, and by using the Catholic Bible, they really could preach from house to house. So it was that Spain had thirty-four Kingdom publishers reporting in 1948, their first year of postwar organized door-to-door preaching activity.

The group in Madrid was weaker than the one in Barcelona. There was no capable brother to take the lead there, although sisters like Carmen Tierraseca and Natividad Bargueño quietly were following the lead of the organization, in spite of some Protestant “poison” in their midst. The meetings were being held on the outskirts of Madrid, in the district of Vallecas, in the home of the Protestant who had tried to ‘rule the roost’ much earlier in Torralba de Calatrava. Before John Cooke arrived, this Protestant used to direct the Watchtower study, which sometimes lasted for almost three hours, the comments of this individual at times being thirty minutes long. John really was unable to improve the situation at that time, as there were no capable brothers then available in Madrid.

From Madrid, John took the train to Ciudad Real, where he was met by the brothers from Torralba de Calatrava. For the first few days, all went well and he was able to hold some fine meetings with the brothers, in spite of the close vigilance of the Civil Guard. About the fourth day, however, John fell ill and had to stay in bed. He had a fever and a strange feeling in the lungs. Though he required plenty of liquid, the water in that town definitely was bad. To worsen the situation, there was no suitable doctor in the town. As each day passed, the situation got worse, not only for John, but also for the brothers who had on their hands this “embarrassing” foreigner who was arousing the suspicions of the Civil Guard. Finally, John made a big effort and journeyed back to Barcelona, where Ramón and Francisco Serrano met him and saw to it that he received necessary care in their home. For a while the doctor was visiting him three times a day, and even the brothers thought that he was dying. However, Brother Cooke pulled through the ordeal, thanks to the care of the Serrano family.

The doctor recommended that John Cooke spend a few weeks in the mountains to recuperate. So, Nemesio Orús invited him to pass the time with his family in Barbastro, but problems were to develop there also.

ARRESTED AS MEMBERS OF THE MAQUIS

While in Barbastro, John and Nemesio had an unusual, though typical, experience. Nemesio had written ahead to an interested person named Vicente to tell him of the visit. Well, when the dilapidated bus pulled up to let off the visitors there was a sinister-looking reception committee awaiting them​—a priest and four of the Civil Guard heavily armed. Nearby was Vicente in his simple peasant garb, with a donkey to carry the bags, and a worried look on his face. After greetings, they loaded the donkey and started the climb up the path that led to the village. But, two of the guards moved on ahead of them and the other two followed behind, along with the priest. The brothers had landed in a trap! As they approached the village, one of the guards from behind shouted: “Halt! Hands up!” “We did not argue about this,” remarked John. “They searched us for weapons and then ordered us to proceed to the brother’s home. Meanwhile, the priest slipped away, his little plan having worked very nicely.”

What had occurred? Well, Nemesio’s letter had been read by Vicente to his family, but the servant girl had heard it and, being a Catholic, had told the priest. He, in turn, tipped off the Civil Guard that dangerous characters would be coming to visit Vicente. In that area at the time, the Maquis, Spanish political refugees with their headquarters in France, often were making nuisance raids across the border, and the local Civil Guard was in a state of alert. Thus, they trumped up the charge that John and Nemesio were Maquis agents.

At Vicente’s house our true position was explained, and the guards left. While the three were relaxing over a cup of coffee the guards returned and arrested them. Why? Because they were supposedly holding an illegal meeting. Franco’s decrees had prohibited unauthorized meetings of three or more persons. This led to their being interrogated from about midnight until 5 a.m. at the nearest Civil Guard headquarters. Thereafter, the three were put in a cell in an unused convent building, with a guard of four soldiers and a corporal. They spent a few days in that place sleeping on dirty mattresses on the floor and paying someone to bring the meals from the inn at the town of Graus. And this was supposed to be a period of convalescence for John!

The three were interrogated once again by officers who were quite polite and respectful. The third day a telegram came from the governor of the province instructing that all three should be released. Eventually, they got back to Vicente’s house and there continued the visit as planned.

After about three weeks with Nemesio, John Cooke returned to Barcelona, where the work was progressing nicely, with some forty Kingdom publishers taking part. During the Memorial celebration held in Spain at that time ninety-six were present and eighteen partook of the emblems. The number of partakers was inflated by the influence of the Protestant “brother” in Madrid. But that situation was only to continue until 1950, when judicial action finally was taken against him. With better understanding, the number of partakers dwindled to three by 1956.

With things progressing slowly but surely in Spain, it was decided that John Cooke should go to Portugal. This he did in August 1948, not returning to Spain until July 1951. However, the eight months of association before his departure had served to get matters on an even keel in Spain. Theocratic order was being established and the fruits were bound to come, in spite of all Satan’s efforts to the contrary.

A major problem in Torralba was the smoking habit. Nearly all the men that associated there were heavy smokers, but they avoided smoking when John Cooke was around. One day, however, Bienvenido González deliberately brought the matter to a head by smoking in John’s presence. As a result, the matter was clarified once more and, as Bienvenido puts it, John’s “counsel was a new incentive for some to drop the dirty vice.”

In 1949, Margarita and her mother established their own study schedule and, during two years, they followed this while witnessing informally to their neighbors and friends. Matters began to take a turn for the better in 1953, when John Cooke visited them for three days and was surprised to have an audience of twenty-six present for a meeting in Palma de Mallorca.

Since Margarita now was twenty-six years old and capable of teaching others, John Cooke took the initiative at the close of the talk and made arrangements for ten Bible studies to be started with the interested persons present at that meeting. Three days of training instilled in Margarita a great appreciation for Jehovah’s organization and also aroused her curiosity about pioneering or serving as a full-time preacher of the good news. In 1953 when John Cooke was attending the Christian assembly in New York, he sent Margarita a pioneer application, which she gladly filled out. As matters developed Margarita Comas became a special pioneer in August of that year.

During the years now under review supervision of the Kingdom-preaching work in Spain underwent some changes. Shortly after Brother John Cooke’s arrival, Ramón Forné was replaced by Luis Buj, who shortly thereafter had to return to Argentina.

With the advent of Gilead-trained missionaries, such as John Cooke, Ken Williams, Bernard Backhouse and Paul Baker, the spirit of pioneering began to develop among some in the small group of Spanish Kingdom proclaimers.

Upbuilding visits by members of the Governing Body continued during the 1950’s. For instance, Brother F. W. Franz again came to Spain in July 1951. A memorable event during that visit was an open-air gathering outside Madrid. On that occasion, several brothers from Torralba who had been baptized in 1946, but not by a baptized person, decided to get rebaptized. Brother Franz gave the baptism talk in Spanish and John Cooke did the baptizing in the Jarama River. This direct personal contact in Spanish with a member of the Governing Body was a great encouragement to the twenty-eight brothers present.

In Granada precautions had to be taken, so the brothers held their meetings in a hotel room. Granada, in the heart of the Andalusia region, is rich in Arabic associations and reminders. Brothers F. W. Franz and John Cooke visited the Alhambra palace, constructed chiefly in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the Arabs, or Moors, as they are more commonly known here.

Brothers Knorr and Henschel returned to Spain in January 1953, and this turned out to be the last visit in which John Cooke would be able to participate. Meetings were held in Barcelona and Madrid, with good attendances. In Madrid the visiting brothers had a conference with Brothers Cooke and Backhouse, and it was decided that Spain and Portugal should then become one branch of the Society, with John Cooke’ as the branch overseer.

During that visit, Brother Knorr suggested caution, especially in the organizing of assemblies. He felt it would be better to keep them down to picnic size, of thirty to forty persons, rather than trying to have attendances of a hundred or more. These “picnic” assemblies were held in the mountains and woods throughout Spain until our work was legalized in 1970. Only on a few occasions did the police intervene.

In July 1953, John Cooke was invited to attend the international assembly of Jehovah’s people in New York city. After that convention he went back to Portugal and held a “picnic” assembly near Lisbon in order to repeat the highlights of the New York gathering. Then, he boarded the train for Madrid, but when he got to the Spanish frontier he was stopped and not allowed to enter the country. In May 1954, he again tried to cross the Spanish frontier, but without success. His name was on the “blacklist.” John Cooke never did get back to Spain to carry on missionary work, but the Kingdom preaching was on solid footing and moved ahead under the influence of Jehovah’s holy spirit. Nevertheless, John Cooke continued his missionary service in Africa and still serves in the South Africa Bethel.